7499. 'Thus said Jehovah the God of the Hebrews' means a command from the Lord, who is the God of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as a command, dealt with in 7036, 7107, 7310; and from the meaning of 'the Hebrews' as those who belong to the Church, and so the Church itself, dealt with in 5136, 5236, 6675, 6684, 6738, 'Jehovah', when that name is used in the Word, being the Lord, see 1743, 1776, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5041, 5663, 6280, 6281, 6303, 6905, 6945, 6956. In the Word the Lord is called 'Jehovah' in respect of Divine Goodness, for Divine Goodness is the Divine itself, and the Lord is referred to as 'the Son of God' in respect of Divine Truth. For Divine Truth goes forth from Divine Goodness, as the Son does from the Father, and is also said to be born from it. But something more must be said to show what this implies. When the Lord was in the world He made the Human He had assumed Divine Truth, and at that time called Divine Goodness, which is Jehovah, His Father. He did so because, as has been stated, Divine Truth goes forth and is born from Divine Goodness. But after the Lord had fully glorified Himself, which was accomplished on the Cross when He underwent His last temptation of all, He then also made the Human He had assumed Divine Goodness, which is Jehovah, and it was from that Divine Goodness that Divine Truth itself went forth out of His Divine Human. This Divine Truth is what is called the Holy Spirit and is the holiness that goes forth from the Divine Human. This shows what the Lord's words in John are used to mean,

The Holy Spirit was not yet because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:39.

With regard to Divine Goodness and its being called 'the Father', and to Divine Truth and its being called 'the Son', see 3704.

1238. As for Eber meaning a nation as well, whose father was thus named Eber, the position is this: Those named so far were nations with whom the Ancient Church existed. All of them were called sons of Shem, Ham, Japheth, or Canaan, because 'Shem, Ham, Japheth, and Canaan' meant differing types of worship in the Church. Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth, and Canaan never were actual people, but because the Ancient Church in particular was such, and every Church in general is such, that it includes a true internal, a corrupted internal, a true external, and a corrupted external, these names were therefore adopted so that all differences in general could be related to those characters and their sons as to their heads. The nations named here also at first possessed such worship, for which reason they are called the sons of one of Noah's sons, and also such forms of worship themselves are meant by the names of these nations in the Word.

[2] This first Ancient Church meant by Noah and his sons was not confined to a few people but was spread throughout many kingdoms, as is clear from the nations mentioned - throughout Assyria, Mesopotamia, Syria, Ethiopia, Arabia, Libya, Egypt, Philistia up to Tyre and Sidon, and throughout the whole of the land of Canaan, on this side of the Jordan and on the other side. Subsequently however a certain type of external worship started in Syria which spread far and wide from there and through many countries, particularly Canaan. It was a different form of worship from the worship of the Ancient Church. And because something of a Church arose in this way that was separate from the Ancient Church, a new Church so to speak rose up from it which may therefore be called the second Ancient Church. Eber was its first founder, and therefore this Church took its name from Eber. As stated already, everybody at that time was distinguished into separate houses, families, and nations. One nation recognized one father from whom it also took its name, as is clear throughout the Word, the nation which recognized Eber as its father thus being called the Hebrew nation.